What an incredible journey & blessing this is, to find myself in New Delhi, India. I believe I have embarked on an amazing adventure & am so excited! I was met by a very friendly Sagar, who thankfully saw my picture ahead of time & recognized me in addition to holding a clear sign with my name. There is always a moment of slight panic when I arrive in a new country & don’t immediately see my pick up person. When I arrived in Hong Kong my contact was nowhere in sight. The departure area was totally empty when she finally showed up about an hour & change later!
Flying Air India was da bomb, a brand new plane & I had a great seat in 17C, the bulkhead row only there was no wall in front of me or screaming kids & mucho leg room on the aisle!! The flight attendants were on the money, keeping the bathrooms as clean as humanly possible with all those folk on board for the 14 hour flight. There was even a smiling flight attendant greeting us at the door with her hands in Namaste [palms pressed together at the heart center & roughly means ‘the light within me recognizes the light within you’]. I almost dropped what I was holding in my hand to ‘Namaste’ her back, so surprised & pleasantly pleased was I.
Once I arrived, I was taken to ‘The Office’ where I met my contact person, the executive director. He then proceeded to introduce me to the entire staff & the names exited my brain damn near before I heard them! Everyone was cordial & after the introductions were all made, I was given my per diem [I didn’t have to ask for it hot damn, man it’s gonna be good!] & was asked what I’d like to eat. I was served a sizzling hot plate of Tandoori Chicken while typing away on the office computer! I’m in heaven, on the internet & eating. Great googa mooga. It’s just too good! Organization, I like that—very professional. Great sign, great sign. Six weeks, man this is gonna be good! I was told that some weekends they would arrange trips for me like to the Taj Mahal in Agra & to Jaipur where I could ride an elephant!!!! Oh man, this is gonna be good!! It’s gonna be good it’s gonna be good!!! So intoxicated by the reception, I was even still smiling after being told the guest house I was to inhabit wasn’t ready so I would be taken to a temporary one. How temporary? Oh just a few days. Oh no problem, I’m in India, I’ve always wanted to come here.
DAY ONE
MET THE COMPANY AT BlueBells International School. The space they rent is on the top floor of a steep 4 flight walk up. I get up to the top oh so out of breath to meet a sea of smiling friendly, excited eyes. Oh they want me to say something, so I wing it, free stylin’ like a rapper without his pad. About 25-30 are in attendance, about one half the company members. It’s funny having all those sets of eyes focused, intent & enraptured while I babbled away, patiently waiting with anticipation during my pauses. That went on for a bit, then I said my goodbyes & had the rest of the day to myself. And at this moment, I don’t remember what the HECK I did LOL!
The next day was the first day of classes & I had to face it. I was going to try to learn names. Names. The names!!!! Having to acclimate my ears to the accent, learning that what sounds like a ‘T’ is a ‘D’ and good grief, I CAN NOT ROLL MY ‘Rs’ TO SAVE MY LIFE. The kids in Bogotá can vouch for that! The English language has a very flat sound in comparison, so man, was I havin’ a fit though they were very sweet & patient as I absolutely mangled their beautiful sounding names, quickly nodding when my bad rendition was within kilometers of similarity.
So very painfully, I continued to stumble & bumble through the roster, immediately helpless as the delete key in my brain worked instantly, so the next day I began anew. A trick I use is to have them write down the names that way I see them & don’t have to pull them out of thin air when I have no point of reference whatsoever. Hah!, thinking the list would be a prompt was just a pipe dream since I had no real clue on pronunciation. It seemed like I’d never get the names. But I did. Every single last one of them yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!
Taught my first 2 classes & felt like I was gonna pass out from the heat—had to sit between classes to keep from becoming acquainted with the floor involuntarily. Love the students, avid, hungry, hardworking & fun! What a bargain. They are a joy.
